28 Feb
2016
28 Feb
'16
4:32 p.m.
Does anyone know the origins of the term 'motherboard'?
I've always associated it with computers and assumed that it started
appearing somewhere around 1980, with the fading out of passive backplane
systems and arrival of machines which put more functionality onto a 'core'
PCB into which other cards were plugged. I don't recall ever seeing it used
when referencing earlier big iron, but maybe I've just missed it.
I had the case lid off a Fluke digital multimeter which hails from 1972
earlier, and was surprised to see it written as part of a warning there
("ensure that all cards are securely plugged into the motherboard before
applying power", or similar - unfortunately I didn't grab a photo at the
time).
cheers
Jules
28 Feb
28 Feb
4:40 p.m.
Stack Exchange entry which suggests it goes back to the 1950's.
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/10386/why-motherboard-is-used-to…
On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 7:32 PM, Jules Richardson <
jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
Does anyone know the origins of the term 'motherboard'?
I've always associated it with computers and assumed that it started
appearing somewhere around 1980, with the fading out of passive backplane
systems and arrival of machines which put more functionality onto a 'core'
PCB into which other cards were plugged. I don't recall ever seeing it used
when referencing earlier big iron, but maybe I've just missed it.
I had the case lid off a Fluke digital multimeter which hails from 1972
earlier, and was surprised to see it written as part of a warning there
("ensure that all cards are securely plugged into the motherboard before
applying power", or similar - unfortunately I didn't grab a photo at the
time).
cheers
Jules
5:47 p.m.
On 02/28/2016 06:40 PM, Jason Scott wrote:
Stack Exchange entry which suggests it goes back to
the 1950's.
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/10386/why-motherboard-is-used-to…
Thanks! It would be interesting to see the context there, and if there were
any specific systems that they were referring to.
I'm wondering if mother-baby gave way to mother-daughter because 'baby'
might imply a size, whereas mother-daughter is more about what is plugged
into what.
cheers
Jules
4:50 p.m.
On 02/28/2016 06:32 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
Does anyone know the origins of the term 'motherboard'?
I've always associated it with computers and assumed that
it started appearing somewhere around 1980, with the
fading out of passive backplane systems and arrival of
machines which put more functionality onto a 'core' PCB
into which other cards were plugged. I don't recall ever
seeing it used when referencing earlier big iron, but
maybe I've just missed it.
Computers existed way before 1980, and had many boards
plugged into wire-wrapped backplanes or motherboards. I'm
guessing the terminology was company-specific. IBM had
their own name for EVERYTHING, for instance. They did NOT
use the term motherboard, as far as I know. The SMS systems
like 709x, 1401, etc. had totally passive backplanes. The
SLT systems (System/360, 1130/1800, etc.) had passive
backplanes, but the local interconnect was done mostly with
etched traces on multilayer PC boards, which also
distributed power to the cards. They just called these
backplane sections "boards" and the SLT circuit boards that
plugged into them were "cards". Not sure where I first saw
the term motherboard, or if it really implied it had
substantial active circuitry on it.
Jon
5:36 p.m.
On 02/28/2016 06:50 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
Computers existed way before 1980, and had many boards
plugged into
wire-wrapped backplanes or motherboards.
Backplane was certainly a term from way back, I just don't recall seeing
motherboard before somewhere around the 1980 timeframe. Maybe you're right
though and it was in use too, but only by certain companies...
29 Feb
29 Feb
7:58 a.m.
On Sun, 28 Feb 2016, Jules Richardson wrote:
FWIW I wouldn't call a motherboard a backplane and vice versa. I'm not a
native English speaker, but my technical background tells me these are
simply different terms, at least as far as contemporary hardware is
concerned.
A motherboard in my understanding is a piece of circuitry which
architecturally constitutes a computer system. It may be lacking a direct
way to connect a CPU or memory even, which may have to be plugged as
daugthercards, one or more -- e.g. for a SMP or NUMA system -- and which
may support different CPU architectures but the core architecture of the
system itself, like buses, bridges between them, bus arbitration
circuitry, maybe some essential peripherals -- it's all there, and in
particular preventing daughtercards from operating on their own. The
majority of Intel x86 PC computer boards is a trivial modern example (and
the computer boards of DEC DECstation and VAXstation lines is a classic
computing example; some actually had their CPU on a daughtercard).
A backplane OTOH is just an interconnect with no substantial circuitry,
where it's the cards plugged in that constitute the system or systems.
The interconnect provides a way for cards to communicate between each
other, but the core architecture of the system is on one or more of the
cards, which in some cases may be able to fully operate on their own,
without a backplane present. A modern example is CompactPCI (while DEC
Q-bus backplanes are a classic example).
I gather there's some room for debate around some border cases, however I
wouldn't ever call an x86 PC computer board a backplane just as I wouldn't
call a CompactPCI backplane a motherboard.
Maciej
Computers
existed way before 1980, and had many boards plugged into
wire-wrapped backplanes or motherboards.
Backplane was certainly a term from way back, I just don't recall seeing
motherboard before somewhere around the 1980 timeframe. Maybe you're right
though and it was in use too, but only by certain companies... 
9:21 a.m.
Computers existed way before 1980, and had many boards plugged into
wire-wrapped backplanes or motherboards. I'm guessing the terminology
was company-specific. IBM had their own name for EVERYTHING, for
instance. They did NOT use the term motherboard, as far as I know. The
SMS systems like 709x, 1401, etc. had totally passive backplanes. The SLT
systems (System/360, 1130/1800, etc.) had passive backplanes, but the local
interconnect was done mostly with etched traces on multilayer PC boards,
which also distributed power to the cards. They just called these
backplane sections "boards" and the SLT circuit boards that plugged into
them were "cards". Not sure where I first saw the term motherboard, or if
it really implied it had substantial active circuitry on it.
FWIW, the IBM term for "motherboard" was "planar", at least in
the era of
the PC, PC/XT, PC/AT, etc.
The first computer to which I had access was my father's 5150 in
approximately 1984; I remember the
machine came with dual floppy drives and a 64K system planar with an Intel
8088. At some point, a
technician came out and put in a different planar with 256K on-board, added
an additional 256K via
expansion board, and configured it with a 30MB half-height Winchester drive
and controller. This second
planar had an AMD D8088 at the same 4.77MHz speed as the original.
Having this machine handed down to me in about 1991 sparked my interest in
programming; many hours
of BASICA silliness and PC-DOS batch file frustration followed.
10:36 a.m.
FWIW, the IBM term for "motherboard" was "planar", at least in the
era of
the PC, PC/XT, PC/AT, etc.
But IBM (at that time) also used the term 'Planar' for 'backplane'. The
backplane
in the 5161 expansion unit [1] is labelled 'I/O Planar' or something very similar
in the silkscreen.
[1] This is what I would term a backplane rather than a motherboard. It is a
passive bus. The only real electronics on it is a 14.3..MHz oscillator to provide
the one signal they didn't take (with good reason) from the machine the
expanison unit was connected to.
I agree with the distincton drawn by others. a 'motherboard' contains significant
parts of the computer circuitry, whereas a 'backplane' is either entirely passive
or
contains simple bits of circuitry like buffers, address decoders, clock, reset logic,
etc.
In the HP150, the boards slid in from the rear and connected to a PCB at the front
of the case containing the printer interface and bus connectors. This (owing to
its position) is called the 'frontplane' in the HP techincal manuals.
-tony
12:18 p.m.
Didn't Intel use what it called "daugherboards" on some of its line of
Multibus products? That is, the "offspring" products plugged into the
Multibus card, not the backplane.
Am I remembering correctly?
--Chuck
12:40 p.m.
Yes... The SBX cards!
Sent from my iPhone
george at rachors.com
On Feb 29, 2016, at 12:18 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist
at sydex.com> wrote:
Didn't Intel use what it called "daugherboards" on some of its line of
Multibus products? That is, the "offspring" products plugged into the Multibus
card, not the backplane.
Am I remembering correctly?
--Chuck
12:44 p.m.
On Mon, 29 Feb 2016, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Didn't Intel use what it called
"daugherboards" on some of its line of
Multibus products? That is, the "offspring" products plugged into the
Multibus card, not the backplane.
Am I remembering correctly?
And, could it be that SOME use of the word "motherboard" was originated to
differentiate from "daughterboard", rather than intended to be a
stand-alone term?
Those who hold that a "motherboard" had substantially more on it than a
"backplane" should look at the "Godbout Motherboard Instructions"
http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/random/Godbout%20backplane%20manual.pdf
10:50 a.m.
On Mon, 29 Feb 2016, John Willis wrote:
FWIW, the IBM term for "motherboard" was
"planar", at least in the era
of the PC, PC/XT, PC/AT, etc. The first computer to which I had access
was my father's 5150 in approximately 1984; I remember the machine came
with dual floppy drives and a 64K system planar with an Intel 8088. At
some point, a technician came out and put in a different planar with
256K on-board, added an additional 256K via expansion board, and
configured it with a 30MB half-height Winchester drive and controller.
This second planar had an AMD D8088 at the same 4.77MHz speed as the
original.
Having this machine handed down to me in about 1991 sparked my interest
in programming; many hours of BASICA silliness and PC-DOS batch file
frustration followed.
IBM also, at that time, sometimes called it, "System Board".
When IBM announced the 5150 in August 1981, I tried to get my uncle, who
worked for IBM, to get me the "employee family discount". He refused.
So, I was delayed a couple of months in ordering one.
I bought, retail at Compurland: system unit, Floppy disk controller, CGA
video board, Async (RS232 & 20ma), parallel printer board, and PC-DOS
1.00. (RAM, floppy drives, composite monitor were all commodity items
that I had for TRS80s, and readily available at less than 20% of IBM's
prices)
My uncle (a generally unreliable source) said that the reason that IBM
didn't call it, "motherboard" was that that was "street slang",
specifically mentioning TV broadcasts of Black Panther speeches at
Merritt College in the late 1960s (when I was playing with 1620 and 1401
there!). The speeches had very frequent use of the word "motherfucker",
which of course was changed to "mother[bleep]" or "mother" by the TV
people. I do not think that the Black Panthers ever used the word "Planar".
(There was a New Yorker cartoon of a biddy watching TV saying to her
friend, "I just love the way that he says 'Mother'." I'd love to
draw a
cartoon of a Panther speaker saying, "Up against the wall, Planar_!")
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
11:10 a.m.
Does anyone know the origins of the term
'motherboard'?
I've always associated it with computers and assumed that it started
appearing somewhere around 1980, with the fading out of passive backplane
systems and arrival of machines which put more functionality onto a 'core'
PCB into which other cards were plugged. I don't recall ever seeing it used
when referencing earlier big iron, but maybe I've just missed it.
Here?s a little more muddying of the ?motherboard? term. When Tandy introduced the Model
II in 1980, they named what is essentially a passive backplane as the ?Motherboard? (note
the capital M). This was the main bus for all of the Z80 functions that were provided on
plug-in cards, including the CPU card, the floppy controller card, the memory cards and
the video/keyboard card. Then, when they introduced the Model 12/16B a few years later,
they had consolidated almost all of the Z80 architecture onto a single board which they
referred to as the "Main Logic" board. The 16B provided a variant of the
original passive backplane, to support various additional cards, that plugged into the
Main Logic board and they still referred to this as the Motherboard. So, even though the
Main Logic board was what we think of as a motherboard today, the kept the ?Motherboard?
naming convention for the backplane.
2:02 p.m.
On 2016-02-28 7:32 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
Does anyone know the origins of the term 'motherboard'?
...
I was amused to learn that other languages sometimes translate it
literally. Portuguese uses "placa m?e" - "board mother". (Pt takes
lots
of other technical terms from English and verbs them too.)
--Toby
cheers
Jules
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cclist＠sydex.com -
chocolatejollis38＠gmail.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
elson＠pico-systems.com -
george.rachor＠gmail.com -
jason＠textfiles.com -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
macro＠linux-mips.org -
pete＠pski.net -
toby＠telegraphics.com.au